Hi everybody.in general i use a rennet named maxiren common here. so many times i read recipies they speak about 1/2 teaspon or other quantities using maxiren i use 1 drop to 1 liter milk do u think using maxiren limits me to to get mor aroma more flavor to cheese??? is anybody in the forum knows /uses this rennet??

zvisaar-the rennet has nothing to do with flavor-with one small exception. The flavor is going to be established by the type of starter cultures and adjunct cultures that you use. The only issue with flavor and the rennet is if you use too much you can sometimes end up with left over bitter peptides.

Hi everybody.in general i use a rennet named maxiren common here. so many times i read recipies they speak about 1/2 teaspon or other quantities using maxiren i use 1 drop to 1 liter milk do u think using maxiren limits me to to get mor aroma more flavor to cheese??? is anybody in the forum knows /uses this rennet??

Hi Zvi!My name is Yoav. I am a regular here and as you can tell from my name I am Israeli too, though I live in NYC. I love making cheese in Israel and I will be there for the month of May and plan on making a lot! Where in Israel are you? There are a few other members here from Israel. Alex (who is giving cheesemaking classes in Haifa area) was very active in the past but now less. Tomer is quite frequent and he is also from Haifa area. Hebrews beer, make wine and bake breads too.

Maxiren is a Microbial rennet. It's a lab-engineered chymosin made from purified Rhizomucor Miehei fungus which does not derived directly from animals or plants (making it suitable for vegetarians and qualifying it to be Kosher certified too). This stuff is made mainly for use in big factories, where mild, stable, predictable, cheap and highly industrialized cheese is made by the tons. Looking at my data, I can't find a double-strength version of it (though it may exist) but it seems that they have single-strength, 4x-strength and 10x-strength - so with these a little goes a long way! From your description, it seems that you are using the 4x or maybe even 10x. I suppose this product makes sense when you want to coagulate a 5,000 Liter vat in a big factory. It is difficult to control in a micro-dairy artisan environment though, and the results are not too exciting. Long aging may bring upon unwanted bitterness. (industrial factory cheese is usually quite young as it uses aging accelerators)

Animal and vegetable rennets are more interesting and delicate. They give the cheese more character. This is especially noticeable in cheese that needs to age a while. Unlike the Maxiren which is a pure chymosin (rennin), these traditional natural rennets typically contain up to 25% worth of other enzymes such as lipase and pepsin. As such, they have far a more complex way of binding solids and breaking down proteins and fats over time. This makes for better texture, sharpness, and flavor development in the cheese.

As for your aroma question: Rennets have minor aromatic effects, (especially lipase-rich rennet on milk that has lots of fat such as Jersey Cows' milk, or milk rich with lipase such as Goats milk). If you are on the quest for aroma improvements, I would play more with cultures (lactic starter as well as surface treatment) and affinage. Balancing those creatively can make miracles happen in your cheese cave! The best approach (in my experience anyway) it to just to go crazy and try different things. On your way to your target, change just one thing in each batch. Make meticulous logs of everything you do so eventually you can trace back your successes to specific techniques and ingredients.